Commentary - Job 12:13-25

Bird's-eye view

In this latter portion of Job 12, Job shifts from his sarcastic rebuke of his friends to a profound declaration of God's absolute sovereignty. Having established that even the beasts of the field could teach his counselors a thing or two about the Creator's power (Job 12:7-9), Job now launches into a magnificent, albeit terrifying, description of God's unassailable authority over all creation and, most pointedly, over the affairs of men. This is not the tidy, predictable God of Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, who simply rewards the righteous and punishes the wicked in a straightforward, tit-for-tat manner. This is the God of the whirlwind, the God who gives and takes away, the God whose purposes are often inscrutable to finite man. Job is wrestling with the raw, untamed reality of God's power, a power that deconstructs human wisdom, topples earthly authorities, and operates on a plane far above our pay grade.

The central theme is the radical disparity between God's wisdom and might, and the utter fragility of human institutions and intellect. Job systematically dismantles every category of human strength and prestige, counselors, judges, kings, priests, nobles, elders, and shows them to be entirely subject to God's sovereign pleasure. He can strip them of their authority, their wisdom, and even their ability to speak coherently. This is a God who is not managed or contained by our theological systems. He is the one who manages and contains us. This passage serves as a crucial corrective to any form of theology that attempts to domesticate God, putting Him on a leash of human reason or expectation. Job, in his anguish, is paradoxically the better theologian than his comfortable friends because he is grappling with God as He is, not as he wishes Him to be.

Outline

Context In Job

This passage comes on the heels of Job's sharp response to his three friends, particularly Zophar's speech in chapter 11. His friends have been operating on a very neat and tidy theological premise: God is just, therefore Job's immense suffering must be a direct result of some heinous, hidden sin. They are, as I've said elsewhere, "woodenly right." Yes, God is just, and yes, sin has consequences. But they have taken a general principle and applied it with a sledgehammer to a specific situation they do not understand, thereby maligning both Job and God.

Job's speech here in chapter 12 is a powerful counter-argument. He doesn't dispute God's power or justice; in fact, he magnifies it beyond what his friends are capable of imagining. His point is that God's sovereignty is so absolute that it cannot be reduced to their simplistic formula. God's actions are not always remedial or punitive in the way we can easily trace. He is God. He does what He pleases. Job is arguing from his own bitter experience that the reality of God's governance is far more mysterious and unsettling than his friends' "prosperity theology" allows. He is saying, in effect, "You think you know how God works? Let me tell you about the God I have been dealing with." This sets the stage for the deeper questions of the book: not whether God is sovereign, but how a righteous man is to live in submission to this sovereign God, especially when His providences are painful and inexplicable.

Key Issues

Commentary

13 With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and discernment.

Job begins by anchoring his entire argument in the character of God. All that follows is an unpacking of this foundational statement. Notice the coupling of attributes: wisdom and might, counsel and discernment. This is crucial. God's power is not raw, arbitrary force. It is power directed by infinite wisdom. His might is not chaotic; it is governed by perfect counsel. This is what makes God's sovereignty both terrifying and trustworthy. A being with ultimate power but without perfect wisdom would be a cosmic tyrant. A being with perfect wisdom but no power to enact it would be a tragic figure. But God is not divided. His attributes are one. With Him, and with Him alone, are these perfections found in their ultimate sense.

14 Behold, He pulls down, and it cannot be rebuilt; He closes a man in, and it cannot be opened.

Here Job moves from abstract attributes to concrete actions. The word "Behold" invites us to look at the evidence in the world. God's actions are decisive and final. When He deconstructs something, whether it is a city wall or a man's reputation, no human effort can reverse it. The second clause is even more personal. He can "close a man in," creating a circumstance from which there is no escape. This is a kind of divine lockdown. Think of a prison door clanging shut, but on a cosmic scale. Job feels this personally. He is the man closed in, hedged about by God (Job 3:23), and no key of human wisdom or effort can pick this lock. This is the hard edge of sovereignty that his friends refuse to acknowledge. They see God's power as something that always builds up the righteous. Job knows that God's power also pulls down, and for reasons that are not immediately apparent.

15 Behold, He restrains the waters, and they dry up; And He sends them out, and they overturn the earth.

Job now turns to the natural world to illustrate this absolute power. God's control over water, the most powerful and chaotic force in the ancient world, is total. He can turn off the tap, and drought ensues. He can open the floodgates, and devastation follows. This is the God of the Flood and the God of the Red Sea parting. He is not subject to the laws of nature; the laws of nature are subject to Him. He can withhold rain from one city and send it on another (Amos 4:7). This is not a God who simply set up a system and let it run. He is actively, personally, and meticulously governing every drop of water. This is a direct challenge to any deistic or impersonal view of God.

16 With Him are strength and sound wisdom; The misled and the misleader belong to Him.

This is one of the most difficult and profound verses in the chapter. Job reiterates that God possesses "strength and sound wisdom" (tushiyyah). This isn't just cleverness; it is substantive, effective wisdom. But then he applies this sovereignty to the moral realm in a startling way. Both the one who is deceived and the one who does the deceiving are His. This does not make God the author of sin. But it does mean that nothing, not even the sinful deceptions of men, happens outside the scope of His ultimate control and purpose. He is sovereign over the con man and the dupe. He is sovereign over the false prophet and the one led astray. This is a hard pill to swallow for those who want to place evil neatly outside the realm of God's decree. Job is affirming that God's sovereignty is exhaustive. He governs all things, including the sinful acts of men, without being culpable for their sin. He uses the wrath of man to praise Him (Ps. 76:10).

17 He makes counselors walk barefoot And makes fools of judges.

Now Job begins to list the specific categories of human authority that God can effortlessly overturn. Counselors, the wise men who advise kings, are made to walk "barefoot" (or "spoiled" in some translations), a sign of shame, captivity, and destitution. The most brilliant political strategists and policy advisors are reduced to nothing. Judges, the arbiters of justice, are made into fools. God can scramble the circuits of the most astute legal mind, rendering their judgments absurd. This strikes at the very heart of human societal order, which depends on wisdom in counsel and justice in law.

18 He opens the bond of kings And binds their loins with a belt.

The highest earthly authority, the king, is next. God "opens the bond of kings," which can mean He strips them of their power and authority, loosing the chains with which they bind others. Conversely, He "binds their loins with a belt," which can be interpreted in two ways. It could mean He reduces them to the status of a servant or slave, who would gird his own loins for labor. Or, it could mean He girds them for a journey into exile. Either way, the message is the same: the king only reigns by God's permission. The crown is on loan. God can repossess it at any moment.

19 He makes priests walk barefoot And subverts the enduring ones.

Not only civil authority, but religious authority is also subject to God. Priests, who mediate between God and man, are made to walk barefoot like captives. Their sacred office does not protect them from the sovereign disruptions of God. "The enduring ones," likely referring to those families or institutions that seem permanent and well-established, are overthrown. There is no tenure in God's world. No dynasty, no institution, no matter how ancient or revered, is immune to His sovereign decree to "subvert" it.

20 He removes speech from the faithful And takes away the discerning taste of the elders.

This is a particularly humbling stroke. God can take away the eloquence of the most trusted and reliable speakers ("the faithful"). A man known for his persuasive and trustworthy speech can be rendered mute or incoherent. The "discerning taste of the elders," their accumulated wisdom and ability to make sound judgments, can be removed. An entire generation of leadership can be struck with a kind of spiritual dementia, unable to distinguish right from wrong, wisdom from folly. We see this all the time in the political and ecclesiastical realms.

21 He pours contempt on nobles And loosens the belt of the strong.

The aristocracy is not exempt. God pours contempt on princes and nobles, exposing their pride and arrogance to public ridicule. "He loosens the belt of the strong" is a powerful image. A tightened belt signifies readiness for action, for battle. To loosen the belt is to render someone weak, helpless, and unprepared. The mightiest warriors, the captains of industry, the "strong," are disarmed and enfeebled by a simple act of God.

22 He reveals mysteries from the darkness And brings out the shadows of death into light.

God's sovereignty extends not just over the visible world of politics and power, but also over the hidden world of secrets and darkness. He is the great revealer. The deepest conspiracies, the most hidden sins, the "mysteries from the darkness," are all an open book to Him. He can expose them at will. He can even bring the "shadows of death", the deepest, most profound darkness and despair, into the light. Nothing is hidden from His sight, and nothing is beyond His power to expose.

23 He makes the nations great, then makes them perish; He enlarges the nations, then leads them away.

From individuals, Job zooms out to the grand scale of international politics. The rise and fall of empires is in God's hands. He is the one who determines the borders of nations and the length of their prosperity (Acts 17:26). He makes a nation great, and when its purpose in His plan is finished, He brings it to ruin. He enlarges a nation's territory, and then He can lead its people away into captivity. History is not a random series of events; it is the unfolding of God's sovereign plan. This is a profoundly political theology.

24 He removes the heart of wisdom from the heads of the earth’s people And makes them wander in a pathless waste.

Here Job returns to the theme of intellectual humbling. God can perform a kind of spiritual lobotomy on the world's leaders. He takes away their "heart," their understanding and courage. The "heads of the earth's people," the ruling class, are left without sense. The result is that they lead their people into a "pathless waste," a state of confusion, chaos, and aimlessness. When God removes wisdom from leadership, the whole nation wanders.

25 They grope in darkness with no light, And He makes them wander about like a drunken man.

The chapter concludes with this vivid image of utter disorientation. Without the light of God's wisdom, the most powerful and intelligent people on earth are like blind men groping in the dark. Their movements are not purposeful but are like the staggering of a drunkard. They are active, they are moving, but they are going nowhere. They stumble and fall, completely unaware of their true condition. This is the end result when human wisdom is exalted against God. It is a portrait of futility, and it is the world that Job sees governed by the hand of this awesome, sovereign God.

Key Words

Tushiyyah, "Sound Wisdom"

Tushiyyah is a key word in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament, appearing frequently in Proverbs and Job. It doesn't just mean theoretical knowledge or cleverness. It refers to sound, efficient, substantive wisdom that gets things done. It is real-world wisdom with practical effect. When Job says this belongs to God (Job 12:16), he means that God's wisdom is not just a collection of true propositions; it is the effective, powerful, and successful reality that undergirds everything that happens. It is the ultimate "how-to" manual for running the universe, and God is the only one who has a copy.

Application

The immediate application of this passage is a radical call to humility. Our modern world, much like the world of Job's friends, loves to believe we have it all figured out. We have our political systems, our economic models, our therapeutic techniques, and our theological grids. But Job reminds us that the God of the Bible is not a tame God who fits neatly into our boxes. He is the God who deconstructs all human pretension to wisdom and power. Therefore, our first response must be to fear Him, not with a cowering dread, but with an awestruck reverence that acknowledges our complete dependence on Him.

Secondly, this passage offers a strange and profound comfort in the midst of suffering. Job's friends offered the cold comfort of a predictable formula. Job offers the hard comfort of an absolute sovereign. If your suffering is just a random, meaningless event in a chaotic universe, that is true despair. But if your suffering, as inexplicable as it is, is under the control of a God who possesses perfect wisdom and might, then it cannot be pointless. Even if we cannot see the purpose, we can trust the Purposer. Our peace comes not from understanding the "why" of our circumstances, but from knowing and trusting the "Who" who governs them.

Finally, this passage should shape our view of culture and politics. We are not to put our ultimate trust in princes, counselors, or judges. Their wisdom can be turned to foolishness overnight. Our hope is not in the next election or the next Supreme Court appointment. Our hope is in the God who raises up nations and brings them down. This frees us to be engaged in the public square without being panicked, to work for righteousness and justice while knowing that the ultimate outcome of history rests not in our hands, but in His.